Overview

The southern Agrarians were a group of twelve young men who joined, from 1929 to 1937, in a fascinating intellectual and political movement. Prominent among them were Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, and Donald Davidson. In the midst of the depression, these gifted writers tried, as did so many other intellectuals, to plot the best cultural and economic choices open to southerners and Americans as a whole. That they failed to gain most of their goals does not diminish the significance of their crusade, or the enduring values that they espoused. Interweaving group biography and intellectual history, Conkin traces how these young intellectuals came to write their classic manifesto, I'll Take My Stand, relates their political advocacy to the earlier Fugitive movement in poetry, and follows their careers after the Agrarian crusade fell apart. More than any other historian or critic, Conkin takes seriously the economic and political beliefs of these southern writers.

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Reviews

One of the few books that really deserves the adjective classic. The Agrarian group is the bete noire of some and the pantheon of cultural saints for others, but Conkin's book is the only one that strips the bark off and presents the men and their beliefs naked. What Conkin does that other writers can't is to factor in the context that equalizes the hagiography. - Michael Kreyling, author of Inventing Southern Literature; Since this book is likely to become the standard undergraduate introduction to the Agrarians, it is fortunate that Conkin maintains both a willingness to criticize and an ability to admire. - American Literature; Offers that rare, relatively objective look at a very talented but quite problematic and temporary alliance of writers. It is the best study we are likely to have, especially since Conkin knew some of the figures. And it will prove attractive to anyone teaching I'll Take My Stand, or planning any course dealing with the intellectual history of the South. - John Lowe, Louisiana State University; Conkin demonstrates with uncommon skill that ephemeral truths of literature, history, and life spring from the realities of individual personalities, social interaction, patterns of human thought, time and circumstance. - American Historical Review

"""One of the few books that really deserves the adjective classic. The Agrarian group is the bete noire of some and the pantheon of cultural saints for others, but Conkin's book is the only one that strips the bark off and presents the men and their beliefs naked. What Conkin does that other writers can't is to factor in the context that equalizes the hagiography."" - Michael Kreyling, author of Inventing Southern Literature; ""Since this book is likely to become the standard undergraduate introduction to the Agrarians, it is fortunate that Conkin maintains both a willingness to criticize and an ability to admire."" - American Literature; ""Offers that rare, relatively objective look at a very talented but quite problematic and temporary alliance of writers. It is the best study we are likely to have, especially since Conkin knew some of the figures. And it will prove attractive to anyone teaching I'll Take My Stand, or planning any course dealing with the intellectual history of the South."" - John Lowe, Louisiana State University; ""Conkin demonstrates with uncommon skill that ephemeral truths of literature, history, and life spring from the realities of individual personalities, social interaction, patterns of human thought, time and circumstance."" - American Historical Review"

One of the few books that really deserves the adjective classic. The Agrarian group is the bete noire of some and the pantheon of cultural saints for others, but Conkin's book is the only one that strips the bark off and presents the men and their beliefs naked. What Conkin does that other writers can't is to factor in the context that equalizes the hagiography. - Michael Kreyling, author of Inventing Southern Literature; Since this book is likely to become the standard undergraduate introduction to the Agrarians, it is fortunate that Conkin maintains both a willingness to criticize and an ability to admire. - American Literature; Offers that rare, relatively objective look at a very talented but quite problematic and temporary alliance of writers. It is the best study we are likely to have, especially since Conkin knew some of the figures. And it will prove attractive to anyone teaching I'll Take My Stand, or planning any course dealing with the intellectual history of the South. - John Lowe, Louisiana State University; Conkin demonstrates with uncommon skill that ephemeral truths of literature, history, and life spring from the realities of individual personalities, social interaction, patterns of human thought, time and circumstance. - American Historical Review

Author Information

Paul K. Conkin is Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University and author of many books, including The Southern Agrarians.

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